46 
NATURAL HISTOEY OF SELBORNE 
breadth and muscular strength of the tail it appears to be an active 
nimble fish." 
In my visit I was not very far from Hungerford^ and did not forget 
to make some inquiries concerning the wonderful method of curing 
cancers by means of toads. Several intelligent persons, both gentry 
and clergy, do I find give a great deal of credit to what is asserted in 
the papers, and I myself dined w^ith a clergyman who seemed to be 
persuaded that what is related is matter of fact ; but, when I came 
to attend to his account, I thought I discerned circumstances which 
did not a little invalidate the woman's story* of the mannfer in which 
she came by her skill. She says of herself " that, labouring under a 
virulent cancer, she went to some church where there was a vast crowd ; 
on going into a pew, she was accosted by a strange clergyman, who, 
after expressing compassion for her situation, told her that if she would 
make such an application of living toads as is mentioned she would be 
well." Now is it likely that this unknown gentleman should express so 
much tenderness for this single sufierer, and not feel any for the many 
thousands that daily languish under this terrible disorder ] Would he 
not have made use of this invaluable nostrum for his own emolument ; 
or at least, by some means of publication or other, have found a 
method of making it public for the good of mankind 1 In short, 
this woman (as it appears to me) having set up for a cancer-doctress, 
finds it* expedient to amuse the country with this dark and mysterious 
relation. 
The water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least appearance of any 
gills ; for want of which it is continually rising to the surface of the 
water to take in fresh air. I opened a big-bellied one indeed, and 
found it full of spawn. Not that this circumstance at all invalidates 
the assertion that they are larvce ; for the larvce of insects are full of 
eggs, which they exclude the instant they enter their last state. The 
water-eft is continually climbing over the brims of the vessel, within 
which we keep it in water, and wandering away ; and people every 
summer see numbers crawling out of the pools where they are hatched 
up the dry banks. There are varieties of them, differing in colour ; and 
some have fins up their tail and back,, and some have not.* 
* The fins or membrane upon the tail and back are an appendage to the males 
only, and are developed at the season of their breeding. 
